A Greta (sic) day at the footy

Our gun forward bags six as we set our sights on the top 4

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ROUND 4: CROWS 2.5 (17) def by HAWKS 11.8 (74)

📝 Main recap:

It was an extra special Saturday at Moorabbin Oval as we smashed the previously undefeated St Kilda, breaking the record for our highest ever score of all time (74 points) and biggest ever margin of all time (57 points) for the third time this season.

Celes galore!

Despite heading into the game as the underdogs, we handed St Kilda the biggest loss in their AFLW history. We had a slow start, not managing to kick any goals in the first quarter, but came out firing in the second in a way that St Kilda couldn't meet.

Greta Bodey was easily the best on ground for the match, kicking an incredible six goals.

SIX!

Best on ground – Greta Bodey bags six

As mentioned, Greta had a massive day out, kicking her 50th career goal part way through the match and ending the day with an incredibly impressive six-goal tally. Along with her six goals, Bodey notched up 18 disposals, eight marks and 295 metres gained.

Goal of the day.

It was the most goals ever kicked by a player in a game for Hawthorn. In fact, Bodey joins an elite club as only the third AFLW player to kick six or more goals in a game, along with Brooke Lochland (seven goals) and Jamie Stanton (six goals). 

InGRETAble.

🧐 Things we like to see – Lucy Wales on fire

Our ruck Lucy Wales had what just might be the best game of her career: an equal game-high 23 disposals, 22 hitouts and eight marks (including an equal game-high three contested marks).

🧐 Things we like to see – Highest scoring quarter ever

We kicked 6.1 (37) in the fourth quarter which was our highest scoring quarter ever and doubled our three-quarter time score.

🧐 Things we like to see – Dominating coaches' votes

For the first time in our club history, we recorded every vote in the AFLCA AFLW Champion Player of the Year voting. Not a single vote went to an opposition player. 

It was no surprise that Greta Bodey picked up the perfect score of 10 votes for her six-goal haul, with Lucy Wales coming in second with seven votes and Aileen Gilroy third with four votes.

Things we like to see – Improved marking skills

After struggling with our marking last week against Adelaide, we looked much better against St Kilda. We dominated marks 76-20 (including 14-4 for marks inside 50). Whether we can keep our composure with contested marks against competitive teams still remains to be seen, but it's a good sign that we were able to contend against St Kilda.

📈 Room for improvement – Slow start

Looking back on such a dominant win, it seems strange that we didn't kick any goals in the first quarter and trailed St Kilda by six points at the first siren. In a similar effort to our opening round game against Carlton, it was a slow start from us.

We did clearly made changes at quarter-time that allowed us to gain control of the match, such as suppressing the efforts of St Kilda midfielder Jaimee Lambert (she had 11 first-quarter disposals and 11 across the other three) and Emily Everistgetting on top of St Kilda's only goal kicker of the day Jesse Wardlaw.

📈 Rising star – Mikayla Williamson

Our highest pick in last year's draft at number 17, Mikayla Williamson is definitely one to watch in our side. She had 13 disposals, 249 metres gained and a great goal assist to give Greta Bodey her first goal of the match in the second quarter.

🤕 Injury watch

Casey Sherriff's timeline to return after having surgery on her leg and ankle is still unknown.

Even though she played the game against St Kilda with 75% time on ground, Bridie Hipwell remains on our injury list with a lower leg injury.

📉 The ladder check-in

Closing in on the top four!

🆙⏭️ What’s up next?

We are heading to another away game, although we won't be travelling too far down the road to play Geelong at Kardinia Park tonight (September 26, 7:15pm).

Geelong have had a chaotic season so far. They lost to Melbourne by two points in Round 1, drew with last year's runners up North Melbourne in Round 2, lost to Carlton by 24 points in Round 3 and smashed Gold Coast by 69 points in Round 4.

They will be extremely confident coming off their dominant win against Gold Coast (where they led 50-0 at half-time). They also look to regain midfielder Georgie Presparkis, an All-Australian and winner of their 2023 Best and Fairest Award.

We have met Geelong once before at the end of last season, where we lost to them by 40 points. Players to keep an eye on include midfielder Nina Morrison (26 disposals against Gold Coast last week) and forward Aishling Moloney (four goals against Gold Coast last week).

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